they wanted a child, they didn’t need one
to be “fully formed,” according to Ford,
who was born in Jackson, Miss., in 1944.

One section of the book is devoted to Ford’s
father, Parker; Ford completed it in 2015,
nearly 55 years after Parker’s death. Ford
wrote the section about his mother, Edna,
shortly after her death in 1981. When his
father took a job selling laundry starch for
the Faultless Company, he traveled through
much of the South, and he and Edna lived
on the road, in hotels in Memphis; New
Orleans; and Pensacola, Fla.. Before Ford
started school, he often accompanied them,
but as he grew older, he became increasingly
aware of his father’s absences, determining
that “permanence was something you fashioned.” Following Parker’s death from a
heart attack when Ford was 16, Edna took
a series of jobs and became brisk and businesslike. Every page of this little remembrance
teems with Ford’s luxuriant prose, his moving
and tender longing for his parents, and his
affecting and intimate portrait of two people
simply living life as best they can as their
world changes around them. (May)

“Being careful today seems harder than
it used to be,” observes research psychologist Casner in this fascinating debut. The
number of fatal injuries has declined significantly over the past century, but since

1992, accidents have actually been on therise, which Casner attributes to the influxof technological innovations. He proposesa proactive response, stating, “the nextsafety revolution is going to have to happenin our own minds.” Using real-life examples,research studies, statistics, and his ownexperiences, he identifies six basic humanvulnerabilities that lead to accidents:inattention, making errors (and beingunable to admit them), taking risks, notthinking ahead, failing to look out forother people, and being unwilling to receiveor dispense advice. Casner stresses that itis up to each individual to consciously tryto overcome these failings. He cautionsthat people are constantly flooded with anenormous amount of information, whichcan make it even harder to make wisedecisions. Riveting and relatable, Casner’sbook will inspire readers to take a goodlook at their own lives and the safety pre-cautions they take on a daily basis. Agent:Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra LiteraryAgency. (May)

★ The Color of Law:
A Forgotten History of How Our
Government Segregated America
Richard Rothstein. Liveright, $27.95 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-63149-285-3

Rothstein’s comprehensive and
engrossing book reveals just how the U.S.
arrived at the “systematic racial segregation
we find in metropolitan areas today,”
focusing in particular on the role of government. While remaining cognizant of recent
changes in legislation and implementation,
Rothstein is keenly alert to the continuing
effects of past practices. He leads the reader
through Jim Crow laws, sundown towns,
restrictive covenants, blockbusting, law
enforcement complicity, and subprime
loans. The book touches on the Federal
Housing Administration and the creation
of public housing projects, explaining how
these were transformed into a “warehousing
system for the poor.” Rothstein also notes
the impact of Woodrow Wilson’s racist
hiring policies, the New Deal–era Fair
Labor Standards that excluded “industries
in which African Americans predominated,
like agriculture,” and the exclusion of
African-American workers from the construction trades, making clear how directly
government contributed to segregation
in labor. And Rothstein shows exactly
why a simplistic North/South polarization
lacks substance, using copious examples
from both regions. This compassionate
and scholarly diagnosis of past policies and
prescription for our current racial maladies
shines a bright light on some shadowy
spaces. 13 illus. (May)

This collection of seven geography-themed essays from McPherson (The
Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Facts)
is both an entertaining exploration of
Americana and a critical look at how people
form memories. His knowledge of esoteric
and diverse topics, such as the intricate
science behind the atom bomb and the pop
culture phenomenon of the soap opera

Dallas, is on display in each spiraling essay.
The collection begins in Dallas, discussing
how the assassination of J.F.K. looms over
both the city and its eponymous TV show.
In an essay on St. Louis, after a detailed
description of the architecture behind the
Gateway Arch monument, McPherson
declares the “balance [of the arch] an illusion,” nodding to his theme of the illusory
border separating past from present and
history from future. The most searing
and poignant essay of the collection is
“Chasing the Boundary: Boom and Bust
on the High Prairie,” which explores how
North Dakota’s recent oil boom brought
thousands of itinerant workers to an otherwise stark landscape. McPherson goes deep
into his subject matter as well as into the
land. He descends through a Brooklyn
manhole into what is considered the world’s
first subway, and into a contemporary
bomb shelter in L.A. This collection brims
with subdued, self-aware brilliance. Agent:
Emma Parry, Janklow & Nesbit. (May)

New York Times Book Review editor Paul
(The Starter Marriage) takes the term
bookworm to a new level in this unusual and
intriguing memoir about intermingling
her life with the books she’s read. Since
high school, Paul has entered every book
she’s read (beginning with Kafka’s The Trial)
in a battered journal she named Bob (Book
of Books); continuing the habit in far-flung destinations in the 1980s and ’90s
(Cambodia, China, France, Thailand,
Vietnam), she recorded the books that she
took along with her. Unlike a diary of
thoughts and events she’d like to forget,
Bob contains info she wants to remember.

Paul was a book-smart, unsociable
child growing
up on Long
Island, the sole
girl among
seven brothers
whose parents
divorced when
she was “three or
four”; books
were and remain